The first three pictures is Soba-cha (Japanese tea made out of roasted buckwheat). I first made the tea, and then poured everything into the mash. I only use pale ale malt and 4% caramel malt, mashed in at 65C. I’m using huge amounts of Chinook and Galaxy hops, this is going to be an Imperial one around 10% ABV and 100 IBU.

It’s a waste to not use the rest of the malts, so I’m also making a low alcohol beer from the rest of the malts in a second mashing.

Special thanks to my good friend Rob from Australia that gave me these fresh Galaxy hops, I’ll try to save a bottle for you.

Damn I need to find out a better way to filter out all the hops from the kettle before putting the wort in the carboy. Roughly 20% of the wort liquid is just hops (I forgot to take pictures of how I did it this time). The 7’th picture is after whirlpool and filtering, still 10% hops soup on the bottom.

Today I’m making a not so hoppy and not so strong India Pale Ale with Japanese そば茶. Soba-cha is my favorite Japanese tea, it is made from roasted buckwheat berries, and has a delicious nutty, malty flavor. It doesn’t have the bitterness as green tea even if you soak it for a long time or make it strong. It have a little sweet taste, with this full body IPA it will be quite sweet with the full flavor of Galaxy aroma hops and dry hopped. Galaxy will add peachy, some say lychee, citrusy aroma and taste. I think this will be a hit!